Lightweight foam safety shoes

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides safety shoes with a built-in toe cap, wherein a foam shoe in which the outsole and the upper are integrated by foaming a synthetic resin is formed, and a toe cap is inserted into a toe cap groove before the foam shoe is cooled by forming the toe cap groove at the outsole and the upper at the front inner part of the foam shoe. In the toe cap, a support border, comprising a metal material, making contact with the bottom, is formed at the lower end of a cover portion making contact with the upper, and a reinforcing piece crossing the bottom is formed at the support border by welding; or a ground plate, comprising an engineering plastic, which is in contact with the bottom, is formed at the lower end of a cover portion making contact with the upper.

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a continuation of pending International Patent Application PCT/KR2014/004714 filed on May 27, 2014, which designates the United States and claims priority of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2013-0093833 filed on Aug. 7, 2013, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to safety shoes to be worn for protecting the feet of a worker in a workplace and, more particularly, to lightweight foam safety shoes for protecting feet from external impact while being formed lightweight to be worn comfortably.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

There are many kinds of safety shoes, according to the use thereof, which have been used in the industrial workplace. In general, the safety shoes mean the shoes used for protecting feet from heavy things falling off in a factory, a construction site and the like, or damages caused by the collision between the front portions of feet and sharp or hard objects during walking.

Therefore, such the safety shoes for protecting feet are provided with toe caps, which are formed of a steel material, covering the tops of the feet from the toes to the approximately middle portions of the tops of the feet in the front portions of the safety shoes. Herein, the toe caps formed of such a steel material in order to protect feet must have stiffness which can bear the weight of 23 kg, falling off from the height of 46 cm, or the load of 1,100 kg. Therefore, the toe caps are typically formed by drawing a normal steel plate material.

As for such prior art safety shoes, there are safety shoes suggested by Korean utility model publication No. 20-0274107 (Y1) (3 May 2002), safety shoes suggested by Korean patent laid-open publication No. 10-2012-0126195 (A1) (21 Nov. 2012), and the like.

In the case of these safety shoes, an upper and an outsole are separately formed and a toe cap is positioned in the upper, which is formed in a dual structure. Therefore, such prior art safety shoes have disadvantages that the safety shoes become heavy, degrading the wearing comfort thereof, etc.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the present invention has been made in an effort to solve the above-mentioned problems occurring in the prior arts, and it is an objective of the present invention to provide lightweight foam safety shoes, wherein the safety shoes are made by foaming a synthetic resin material such that the safety shoes are formed to be lightweight, providing excellent wearing comfort as well as safely protecting feet from external impact.

To achieve the above objectives, according to the present invention, in the forming of a safety shoe incorporating a toe cap for covering a toe portion so as to safely protect the toe portion from external impact, the safety shoe is formed as a foam shoe by foaming a synthetic resin material such that the foam shoe includes an outsole and an upper, which are integrated with each other, wherein toe cap insertion grooves are formed in the outsole and the upper in the front portion of the foam shoe such that the toe cap is inserted into the toe cap insertion grooves before the foam shoe is cooled.

The toe cap includes a support border formed of a metal material at the lower end of a cover portion, which comes into contact with the upper, so as to come into contact with the bottom, and a reinforcing piece welded to the support border by crossing the outsole.

Further, the toe cap includes a ground plate formed of an engineering plastic material at the lower end of the cover portion, which comes into contact with the upper, so as to be integrated with the lower end of the cover portion and come into contact with the outsole.

The lightweight foam safety shoes provided according to the present invention have effects as follows.

The outsoles and the uppers are formed by foaming a synthetic resin material such that the safety shoes can be made lightweight, thereby providing wearing comfort.

The safety shoes are lightweight such that the wearing fatigue can be reduced even during a long time wearing thereof.

The outsole and the upper are integrally formed with each other by foaming such that manufacturing cost reduction can be foreseen.

Even though the toe cap is formed of a metal material which is opened at the lower portion thereof, the reinforcing piece is welded to the support border so as to reinforce the outsole, of which durability is likely to be weakened, such that a foot can be protected even when the toe cap is distorted by external impact.

The upper has air ventilation protrusions formed inside such that the air permeability in the safety shoes is increased, minimizing the bad smell and diseases such as athlete's foot and the like, which may be broken out due to the secretions (sweat).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a lightweight foam safety shoe, provided according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a boot type lightweight foam safety shoe, provided according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a toe cap applied to the lightweight foam safety shoe, provided according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a toe cap applied to the lightweight foam safety shoe, provided according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the lightweight foam safety shoe provided in the present invention, showing a state before assembling the toe cap, and

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of the lightweight foam safety shoe provided in the present invention, showing a state, in which the toe cap is assembled.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Hereinafter, lightweight foam safety shoes according to embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a lightweight foam safety shoe, provided according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a toe cap applied to the lightweight foam safety shoe, provided according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a toe cap applied to the lightweight foam safety shoe, provided according to another embodiment of the present invention.

The present invention is to provide effects such as the improvement of wearing comfort, the reduction of wearing fatigue, securing safety, improvement of productivity and the like in a lightweight form.

To this end, according to the present invention, a lightweight foam safety shoe 1 is formed as a foam shoe 2 by foaming a synthetic resin material so as to integrally form an outsole 3 and an upper 4, wherein ventilation protrusions (not shown) are formed long in an opening direction therein.

When forming the foam shoe 2 by foaming a synthetic resin material, toe cap insertion grooves 3 a, 4 a are formed on the inside portions of the outsole 3 and the upper 4 in the front portion of the foam shoe 2, where toes are positioned.

The toe cap insertion grooves 3 a, 4 a are formed in a depth corresponding to the thickness of a toe cap 10 such that no stepped difference is formed between the toe cap insertion grooves 3 a, 4 a and the toe cap 10, thereby preventing any irritating feeling.

The toe cap insertion grooves 3 a, 4 a are forcedly fitted into the toe cap 10 so as to be fixed thereto. According to a preferred example, the toe cap 10 is fixed by fitting before the foam shoe 2 is cooled after the foam shoe 2 is foamed, as shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5.

That is, the foam shoe 2 has flexibility before the cooling thereof such that the toe cap 10 can be easily pushed into the toe cap insertion grooves 3 a, 4 a and, in this state, the foam shoe 2 is retracted during the curing of the foam shoe 2 such that the toe cap 10 is firmly fixed.

The toe cap 10 is made of a metal or engineering plastic material.

If the toe cap 10 is made of a metal material, it is typical to form a support border 12, which comes into contact with the outsole 3, at the lower end of a cover portion 11, which comes into contact with the upper 4. However, according to the present invention, a reinforcing piece 13 crossing the outsole 3 is welded to the support border 12 so as to prevent the distortion of the toe cap 10 caused by external force. Herein, the reinforcing piece 13 is formed at the stepped portion side (sole portion) of the toe cap insertion groove 3 a.

Meanwhile, if the toe cap 10 is made of an engineering plastic material, a ground plate 14, which comes into contact with the outsole 3, is integrally formed at the lower end of the cover portion 11, which comes into contact with the upper 4.

The lightweight foam safety shoe 1 according to the present invention as described above includes the toe cap insertion grooves 3 a, 4 a formed on the inside of the foam shoe 2 and the toe cap 10 fitted into the toe cap insertion grooves 3 a, 4 a so as to be fixed thereto. Such safety shoes 1 can be manufactured and supplied in a lightweight form as well as safely protect feet by means of the toe caps 10.

In particular, if the toe cap 10 is made of a metal material, the toe cap 10 is likely to be deformed in the foam shoe 2 such that a foot may be possibly damaged. However, the reinforcing piece 13 crossing the outsole 3 is further added to the support border 12 so as to serve to prevent the toe cap 10 from being deformed by external force and safely protect the foot.

Furthermore, if the ventilation protrusions are formed long in the opening direction in the foam shoe 2 according to the present invention, the ventilation protrusions provide excellent air permeability such that it is possible to prevent various diseases, which may be broken out due to the secretions such as sweat and the like of the foot. In addition, the foam shoe 2 according to the present invention has the excellent waterproof property so as to be used as a substitute boot and the like. Therefore, such foam shoes 2 according to the present invention can be usefully in the overall industries.

As described above, while the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to the example embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the above embodiments of the present invention are all exemplified and various changes, modifications and equivalents may be made therein without departing from the scope of the present invention. Therefore, it would be understood that the present invention is not limited to the forms described in the example embodiments and the technical and protective scope of the present invention shall be defined by the following claims and the equivalents thereof. 

What is claimed is:
 1. In the forming of a safety shoe incorporating a toe cap for covering a toe portion so as to safely protect the toe portion from external impact, a lightweight foam safety shoe characterized in that the safety shoe is formed as a foam shoe by foaming a synthetic resin material such that the foam shoe includes an outsole and an upper, which are integrated with each other, wherein toe cap insertion grooves, are formed in the outsole and the upper in the front portion of the foam shoe such that the toe cap is fitted into the toe cap insertion grooves, so as to be fixed therein before the foam shoe, which is formed by foaming, is cooled.
 2. The lightweight foam safety shoe according to claim 1, wherein the toe cap includes a support border formed of a metal material at the lower end of a cover portion, which comes into contact with the upper, so as to come into contact with the outsole, and a reinforcing piece welded to the support border by crossing the outsole.
 3. The lightweight foam safety shoe according to claim 1, wherein the toe cap includes a ground plate formed of an engineering plastic material at the lower end of the cover portion, which comes into contact with the upper, so as to be integrated with the lower end of the cover portion and comes into contact with the outsole. 